The Great Migration: Tanzania’s Interesting Wildlife.
What is the Great Migration?
The Great Migration’s main protagonists, the approximately 2 million wildebeests, begin their trek in the Serengeti’s south. If this reminds you of Lion King, trust us, it is way bigger than that stampede! With over 1000 animals per kilometer, you can imagine what the fields would look like. It is like a war zone!
Why Is The Great Migration So Great?
The movement is accompanied by the birth of half a million calves during January and March. The Massive Migration is the continuous circular movement of over a million wildlife from across the Serengeti-Mara landscape.
The Great Migration is among the most highly prized events for wildlife and environment aficionados. In quest of grass and water, columns of wildebeest, accompanied by a slew of pals, pursue an age-old path. The Great Migration can be the world’s largest animal herd movement. The vast number of Wildebeest can be seen from miles away, with up to 1,000 animals per km2!
Survival Of The Fittest!
Each Wildebeest will travel 800 to 1,000 kilometers across centuries-old migratory paths. In this magnificent display regarded as “the greatest show on Earth,” ravenous carnivores such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, wild dogs, and crocodiles ensure that only the fittest survive. This is one of the biggest displays of Darwin’s theory of natural selection!
Grouping Of The Grazing Groups:
The vegetation consuming behaviors of the three groups of migrant grazing animals differ considerably, which means that there are three groups of wildebeests, and they all graze on different heights of grass.
One group consumes the tops of the tallest grass. The next group consumes most of the moderate or medium height grass till the intermediate grass is nearly totally consumed. After finishing up, the herds move on. This means that each group only interacts with people of their own species, with a relatively minor overlap in their distributions.
What Path Do The Wildebeests Follow?
It’s unsure how the wildebeests figure out which route to travel on, but it’s widely assumed that their movements are largely governed by the weather and the level of nutrition in the grasses. So it’s believed that they follow the showers and the growth of new grass.
Although there is no concrete evidence, some specialists argue that animals respond to distant thunder and storms. Since wildebeest have the ability to detect rain from a very large distance, it makes sense that they’d respond to rain conditions.
A more accurate embodiment of the nature of life is unlikely to appear anywhere else on the planet. The expedition begins when wildebeest calves are weaned in southern Serengeti.
Can You Watch The Great Migration?
If you plan on visiting Serengeti with the hopes of getting a glimpse of this expedition, we can’t guarantee that you’ll get a chance to actually witness it.
You can’t really be sure whether or not the migration will happen on the predicted path or when it will happen at all. However, the short rains in November and December could cause the Wildebeest to migrate to the calving grounds near the Ngorongoro crater. This area of the Serengeti is open to tourists, and lots of wildebeest are around in the lush green area. So if you want to see the wildebeests, this is where to go.
We can’t guarantee if you’ll be able to see the migration or not, but we can assure you that you’ll get a glimpse of the wildebeest in their natural habitat!